The Cabin in the Woods is Hilarious

Jay’s Month of Screams, Day 26- The Cabin in the Woods

I normally don’t go for horror films, despite my love for Halloween. Irony aside, when I do watch a horror film, I enjoy making fun of the cliches found within. Maybe that’s why I took to The Cabin in the Woods so well

Released in 2012, this film was directed by Drew Goddard and produced by Joss Whedon. Whedon’s famous for creating Firefly, the Buffyverse, and doing The Avengers movie and his run on Astonishing X-Men. Goddard wrote on Buffy, so the two worked well together. Needless to say, this film had talent working on it, so I gave it a shot.

Horrifically Hilarious

The film follows the standard American Slasher film plot. A bunch of archetype young adults alone in an isolated area, then get embroiled in a supernatural horror show.

Unlike slasher films, though, the whole thing’s planned out. A secret global organization plans out scenarios every year where people are killed as sacrifices to eldritch gods called the Ancient Ones. If the ritual fails, they destroy the world.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the plot of the movie: it intentionally follows the tropes of classic slasher films and makes no effort to hide it. The reasoning behind this is that Whedon and Goddard wanted to draw attention to what they see as the problems with horror films these days. Primarily, they’re mad about how the characters seem to make the absolute dumbest decisions possible!

I mentioned it a little in my post on the Total Drama Island episode, but I hate seeing the stupidity of people in horror movies. It irritates me to no end. You shouldn’t make out in the woods, you shouldn’t split up, and always carry something for self defense. In addition, The Cabin in the Woods also makes viewers ask an important question: why do we like watching attractive people die in the worst ways possible?

We Are the Ancient Ones

An interesting thing about this movie is the concept of the Ancient Ones. While they’re treated like something out of a Lovecraftian novel, I interpreted them in a more meta fashion. The Ancient Ones are essentially the viewers and fans.

The whole purpose of the Ritual is to appease them so they won’t destroy humanity. They require the Ritual to be done in a specific fashion with an ending in mind. That’s pretty much every fan possible. As for the Ancient Ones destroying the world, it’s like angry moviegoers unsatisfied with what they watched.

A Great Horror Deconstruction

The Cabin in the Woods is a great movie. It not only includes all the cliches of horror movies, but revels in them. It enjoys them while bashing them at the same time. I love The Cabin in The Woods, and even if you hate horror movies, you can love it, too. Happy Halloween!

Click here to see the FANDOM Article I did for Halloween last year.

Click here to see my other animation stuff. Or here to see all holiday related posts.